Big paycheques for big players, big cars for big garages, big spending for big lifestyles and on a football scale - big pressure to perform to keep being, well, big.
 
Having once been top goal scorer for Leeds United and, as his Twitter Bio describes him as 'having more clubs than Tiger Woods', Michael Bridges - Newcastle Jets striker and proud token Novacastrian - knows all about the pressure to survive in the big leagues of England.
 
"I was with Sunderland at the time and we were playing Wimbledon in the last game of the season," he says. "We had to win to survive relegation.
 
"We drew. All the fans are shouting and screaming at us and we had to listen on the radio to see if Coventry City had won. They had delayed their kick off by 15 minutes to hear our result.
 
"So we were on this radio thing for 15 minutes and when they scored a goal, we had 30,000 people shouting at us because we had cost the club."
 
With his head in his hands, Michael describes relegation in the big European leagues as not a particularly easy thing to endure: "I experienced three promotions and three relegations in my career, - and I much, much prefer promotions."
 
Michael has had some amazing highs in his career. Having been named in Sven Goran Eriksson's 2002 World Cup Squad, he was among talent such as Michael Owen and now teammate Emile Heskey coming through the ranks, and after a huge debut season with Leeds, was hailed as England's 'next big thing'.
 
The look on Michael's face speaks volumes when he's asked about the devastating injury that stopped his flourishing career in its tracks - and it's obvious he has been asked this question a million times over.
 
"People ask me if the injury against Besiktas was the one thing I would change in my career and I used to always say yes," he admits.
 
"But now an older, wiser me never looks back and regrets anything. I look at my life now - I met my wife Kate during the period I was injured and now we have two beautiful kids.
 
"How can I be miserable about 'what could have been' when there are people dying in the world? We are entertainers, we are lucky to do what we do."
 
But it wasn't all sunshine for a younger, hungry, passionate and football-mad Michael Bridges, and as many professional sportspeople can relate, injury can plague not only your body, but also your mind.
 
"I worked damn hard for 14 months to recover from what I was told by the club doctor was a career ending injury," he says. "And I got myself fit and playing again, against all odds.
 
"But injury struck again - only two months after my comeback - and I was told I would be out for another eight months.
 
"And that's when I hit depression."
 
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